Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Veterans says that Afghanistan is the longest war the U.S. has fought with an all-volunteer army. He states that U.S. troops have shown remarkable resilience, but notes that nobody knows the extent of their limits of the consequence of crossing them. (0:31)
Under Secretary of Department of Defense Michele Flournoy says the new short-range missile defense plan is not about abandoning European allies. She says the plan is not, and has never been about pleasing Russia. (0:30)
By Ravi Bhatia-Talk Radio News Service
A number of high ranking Congressional Republicans Thursday protested President Barack Obama’s recent decision to scrap an Eastern European based missile defense system.
Ranking Member of the House Committee on Armed Services Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Calif.), House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Strategic Forces Michael Turner and House Chairman Michael Pence (R-Ind.) all delivered statements.
“We’re seeing this administration’s real national security policy emerge,” McKeon said. “The administration is capitulating to Russia’s demands, rewarding Russia for its divisive policies and actions.”
The plan eliminates former President George W. Bush’s planned missile defense system, which would have deployed either a radar system in the Czech Republic or 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland in order to deter long range and short range missiles. Instead, the Obama administration will use a system aimed more toward intercepting shorter-range missiles from Iran, which Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes pose a more immediate threat.
“The sudden turnaround, the sudden release of new intelligence information – that has not come the way of the Hill – is puzzling, to say the least,” Cantor said. “We await the answers associated with that turnaround from our administration.”
Cantor also said that he hoped Vice President Joe Biden was “misquoted” when he said he was much less concerned about Iran because Iran does not have the potential capacity to launch a missile at the United States.
“To me, implicit in [Biden’s] statement is that we should not naturally concern ourselves with the threat to our allies in Europe, to our allies in the Middle East such as Israel,” Cantor said.
Acording to Michael Turner, the Obama administration has cut missile defense funding by $1.2 billion. He also said that the plan will not provide the United States with long range missile defense until 2020, while the former plan would have considered long range missile defense as early as 2013.
“They’re retreating from the deployment of a missile defense shield in Europe,” he said.
“The Obama administration is continuing a policy of appeasement at the expense of our allies,” Pence said. “History teaches that weakness and appeasement invite aggression against peaceful nations.”
By Sam Wechsler – Talk Radio News Service
Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke Wednesday about the need for the U.S. to better protect its troops from being harmed in the war in Afghanistan.
Mullen stated that “the center of gravity is really the protection of the [Afghan] people.” He added that civilian casualties are not conducive to winning the war.
He explained that the largest threats to the U.S. military in Afghanistan are attacks from IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) employed by the Taliban, and post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by American soldiers.
“We’ve come a long way with respect to [IEDs], but this is an enemy that is very adaptive and very capable…and as they adapt, we adapt, and they adapt again,” said Mullen. In order to better equalize the threat of IEDs, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is sending upwards of 2,000 armored all-terrain vehicles that provide better protection from the explosives.
“When I visit troops there is also a great skip in their step because they know they’ve made a difference, they’ve turned it around in a place like Iraq, and they’re very confident that they can get the job done in Afghanistan,” said Mullen.
As for a timetable, Mullen said that military must “turn the tide” against the Taliban within the next twelve to eighteen months.
U.S Secretary of Defense Robert Gates discusses the priorities set for the FY 2010 Defense Budget announced in May by President Barack Obama. Gates states greater commitment to the well being of the soldiers, rebalancing the department’s programs and finally reforming expenses as the main focus of the Department of Defense. (0:52)
Ranking minority member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Bill Young asks why the government wasted taxpayers’ money on presidential helicopters which are now judged obsolete. To this, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates replies that this was not intended. (0:44)
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates describes the three objectives of the Defense budget: to take care of the forces, to rebalance the Department’s programs and to start a reform on how and what the Department buys. (0:44)
By Hadas deGroot
President Obama’s Defense budget falls short on missile defense spending, say House Republicans.
Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced plans to scale-back and reshape military spending. Even though the 2010 budget includes a 4% increase overall, this marks a slow-down of the growth of defense spending which occurred during the Bush administration.
Congressman Bob Inglis (R-SC) said the cut-backs irresponsibly take money away from missile defense.
Recently returned from a trip to Syria, Israel, Gaza, and India, Inglis said, “When you see tangible evidence of the results of missiles in Israel, and all in the midst of this comes a launch by the North Koreans, it’s just a particularly bad idea to cut funding for this.”
Gates’ supporters say the balancing pf priorities marks a milestone for the Defense Department.
The United States could save billions by “Keeping ballistic missile defense in a research mode until the technologies are proven,” said Lawrence J. Korb, Senior Fellow with the Center for American Progress.
Jonathan Bronstein talks to Mackenzie Eaglen, an analyst for the Heritage Foundation, about Robert Gates’s announcement to cut the military budget and how what affect it will have on national security. However, Eaglen believes that such a move is dangerous because weapon technology research takes decades to create so any cut in the budget now will undoubtedly affect the future.
Additionally, she questions the critics who complain about the Department of Defense, DOD, overspending as, “the GAO [Government Accountability Office] has been reporting on the top ten DOD weapons systems cost overruns for years,” and only recently has it become a large issue. (1:05)
While testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates laid out the challenges facing the Defense Department. Gates said that “the greatest military challenge right now is Afghanistan,” but went on to say that there is “no purely military solution in Afghanistan”. Gates said that the highest priorities should be increasing the size and training of the Afghan army. He stated that America’s NATO allies could be doing more to support the war in several ways: providing caveat free military forces, providing a greater number of civilians for other efforts pertaining to operations and building, and sharing the financial burdens associated with Afghan army, estimated to be $3-4 billion in the next several years. Gates said that Afghanistan will be a “long and difficult fight”, and that the goal is for it not to be a base for terrorists.
On the topic of Iraq, Gates highlighted that on January 1st the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the US and Iraq went into effect. SOFA withdraws US combat troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June with all troops out by 2011. Secretary Gates said that the upcoming elections in Iraq show progress. In his prepared testimony, Gates noted that the “sovereignty of Iraq” is one of the “non-military ways to blunt Iran’s power to threaten its neighbors and sow instability throughout the Middle East”. On Iran, Gates reinforced that they are “developing the capabilities needed to support a nuclear weapons program.” He said that “the lower price of oil deprives Iran of revenues and, in turn, makes U.N. economic sanctions bite harder.”
On North Korea, Secretary Gates said that denuclearization is still the goal, but it is uncertain whether North Korea will be willing to entirely give up its nuclear ambitions.
Speaking generally on foreign policy, Secretary Gates said that the United States military “must be able to dissuade, deter, and, if necessary, respond to challenges across the spectrum.” He highlighted the modernization China has recently been engaged in of their armed forces, specifically in cyber warfare, anti-satellite weaponry, anti-air and anti-ship weaponry, and their use of submarines and ballistic missiles. Gates said, “modernization in these areas could threaten America’s primary means of projecting power and helping allies in the Pacific: our bases, air, and sea assets, and the networks that support them.” Gates pointed out that the ground offensive by Russian troops into Georgia was preceded by a “sophisticated cyber attack”, and said that the Russian army is a “force to be reckoned with” in Eastern Europe. Secretary Gates was careful to say that Russia’s current efforts to dominated its “near abroad” should not be confused with the Soviet ideological campaign to dominate the world.
Defense Secretary Gates also met today with the House Armed Services Committee on the similar topics.
By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico – Talk Radio News Service
